New York, NY, August 10, 2012 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed concern at a statement made by comedian Joan Rivers suggesting that Costco's decision not to sell her book, I Hate Everything…Starting with Me, is comparable to the policies of Nazi Germany.
On August 7, Joan Rivers protested at a Costco store in a Los Angeles suburb that refused to sell her a book, chaining herself to a shopping cart and shouting from a bullhorn. In an interview with KTLA at the store, Rivers said, "People should have the right to have the literature they want. This is the beginning of Nazi Germany."
"While Joan Rivers may be right in criticizing Costco's decision, there is simply no comparison between a private company's choice not to sell a book and the policies of the Nazi regime that engaged in the systematic persecution and slaughter of millions of Jews and others during the Holocaust," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor. "Such comparisons only serve to trivialize the Holocaust and are deeply offensive to Jews and other survivors, as well as those Americans who fought valiantly against the Nazis in World War II."
In a letter to Rivers, ADL called on her to retract her inappropriate remarks and to refrain from using Holocaust imagery in the future.